Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/90487
your turn by Jacqueline Brito ALL BUSINESS SCHOOLS would like to recruit and admit motivated students who will become highly marketable graduates as well as excellent brand ambassadors for their programs. But I think it's even more important that schools seek out students who are destined to be great hires for employers. In fact, I call it "socially responsible admissions" when schools consciously commit to enrolling students who will be assets to the job market. To make sure that they are recruiting and admit- ting students who will be exceptional hires, I believe school administrators first must ask themselves some searching questions. "How can we ensure that our school's goals are most accurately aligned with those of employers? How can we create a strategic alliance with employers so we can create a pool of qualified candidates?" Those were two of the many questions that I posed a few months ago as I considered my role as assistant dean of admissions for the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business in Florida. Prior to transitioning to academia, I spent several years in corporate America as an internal consultant who addressed workforce planning and employment needs. My client groups consisted of departments such as operations, advertising, adminis- tration, technology, and marketing. During those years I learned firsthand that understanding workforce needs was critical to achieving optimal per- formance and meeting the company's strategic plan. And understanding was only achieved through research. What works for corporate America works for MBA admissions profession- als. Last January, the Crummer School commissioned a market research firm to help us identify how the Rollins MBA could best serve employers by The Best Hires Make the Best Admits developing the right professional skill sets among the students in our MBA and executive education programs. We wanted to understand the current and emerging skill sets employers considered most valuable and identify any gaps that existed between their business needs and the skill sets of their current employees. The research revealed that the biggest gaps were in the areas of written and verbal communications, team- work, critical thinking, and time management—and that these skills were universally prized in current or potential employees. I knew that, to meet the needs of employers, our admissions office would need to recruit and admit students who could excel in these areas. Therefore, I recommended that our school follow a streamlined, four-part vetting process: Step 1: Analyze application documents. While the admissions team will always be interested in a candi- date's GMAT or GRE score, those don't always reflect whether a candidate truly has the communications and critical thinking skills that employers value. Therefore, I believe it's essential to conduct a holistic review of a student's entire file, including the candidate's appli- cation, résumé, recommendations, transcripts, and scores. This will help the admissions team determine if the candidate meets enough criteria to advance to the interview stage, and it will also help them identify areas that might need further explanation during an interview. school's goals are accurately aligned with those of employers? How can we ensure that our 56 November/December 2012 BizEd Step 2: Conduct the interview. Most schools see structured interviews as chances to decide if candidates will be good fits for their MBA programs. But I maintain that it's just as important to use the interview to determine if the students have the potential to be great hires for employers. At Rollins, each MBA candidate must complete a behav- ioral interview, during which we ask pointed questions about past incidents, actions they took in response, and the resulting outcomes. Although past per- formance isn't always the best predictor of future on-the-job performance, such